11. The average whaling ship in the 1840’s cost $50,000 to build and provision. They generally brought back 3,000 (31.5 gallon) barrels of oil worth $130,000 per trip – about $2 million in today’s money.

74. A “growler” is an iceberg less than 5 meters in length and less than one meter above water

75. There have been 16 directors of the F.B.I. since it was created in 1908

76. The Titanic was provisioned with 40,000 fresh eggs on its only voyage

77. Will Somers was the Court Jester for King Henry VIII

78. Marco Polo was asked on his deathbed to admit that his stories were made up. His last words were, “ I have not told half of what I saw”

79. In 1963 the MVP’s of the National League (Sandy Koufax), the American League (Elston Howard) and the National Football League (Jim Brown) all wore number 32

80. Before the 1870’s most footballs were, in fact, inflated pig’s bladders – thus the term “pigskin”

81. A fashionably dressed woman in the Victorian period could wear over 37 lbs of clothing in the winter, of which 19 lbs were suspended from the waist

82. Swiss army knife manufacturers Victorinox makes a knife with a blade specially designed to “perform an emergency tracheotomy”

83. For many years, Betty Rubble was the only major character not represented in “Flintstone Chewable Vitamins”

84. Olive oil is one of the few types of vegetable oil that is made from the flesh of the plant, as opposed to the seeds

85. If you officially renounce your U.S. citizenship, you have to do so outside of the borders of America (and it’s a fairly complicated process)

86. The Netherlands is the only country that officially adopted “keelhauling” as a punishment

87. According to Johns Hopkins University Hospital, most people have deformed toenails (Onchogryphosis) on their little toes due to poorly fitting footwear

89. Elephants really enjoy chewing tobacco

90. Fasting is physically completely bad for your body – no beneficial side effects like “cleansing”

91. The halos around people’s heads in old paintings were actually a nimbus – this is from pagan time when gods would have a glowing source of power and is was a full body glow

92. One large piece of the U.S. space station Skylab fell on a golf course in Albany, Australia (on July 11, 1979) after an out-of-control re-entry into the Earth’s atmosphere

93. Green and yellow tattoo ink are the hardest to remove

94. Russian artists Alex Melamid and Vitaly Komar have opened three elephant painting schools in Thailand. The paintings are described as “abstract”

95. The Inuit language has 24 names for snow but English has thirty

96. The was not one single day of worldwide peace in the 20th century

97. There is a universal sign language system called Getsuno, but it is not widely used

98. Early crossword puzzles in the The Times of London newspaper were often in Greek of Latin

99. In 1909, the Aurora Borealis were visible in Singapore, one degree north of the Equator

100. President Franklin Roosevelt refused to attend meetings that had 13 people. He would often have his secretary attend to make it 14.

101. There is a bit of inherent randomness in the way that fingerprints form. If you were cloned, you would still have different fingerprints from your genetically identical “twin”

102. Even today, the ability of anesthetics to kill pain is not completely understood

103. The first document to use the word “orange” to describe a color was in 1600

104. In old movies, wagon wheels often appear not to move because they are rotating at 24 spokes a second – which exactly matches the 24 frames per second that the film was shot in (sometimes they can even appear to be going backwards)

105. Mozart was never rich because there were no copyright laws to pay him for performances of his works or sales of his sheet music

106. The human nervous system generates an electric impulse that travels 100m/sec., while a Venus flytrap generates an impulse only at a sluggish 3cm/sec

108. There is no maritime law stipulating “women and children first” on a lifeboat

109. Concert pianist Christopher Seed had a left-handed piano built for him in 1999 – it cost $42,000

110. Indian McDonald’s have “Maharaja Macs” made with lamb

111. A behavioral test on chimps in West Africa found that they preferred blue or grey objects when they were stressed, hungry or the weather was bad

133. The baseball bat that the Mom defends herself with in the movie The Shining bears Carl Yastrzemski’s signature

134. Nickelodeon started in 1979 but was originally called Pinwheel

135. The oldest cave paintings are 32,000 yrs old (in Chauvet cave – southern France). The artists used more advanced painting techniques here than were used thousands of years later

136. A sundial designed to work in the U.S. will work just fine in the southern hemisphere, but the numbers run counter-clockwise

137. A light probe immediately inside the coin-slot of slot machines detect whether the center of the coin is missing (a washer)

138. Your chances of surviving a plane crash are significantly better if your seat is facing backwards – some troop transport planes have this type of seating

139. Large chunks of cheese are cut with a wire because the surface area of a knife causes sticking issues

140. It is estimated that around 3% of the world’s population show some signs of a psychopathic condition

141. You could get your entire recommended daily allowance of Vitamin C from potato chips but you would also get 2,750 calories and 140 g of fat

142. The world’s population should peak at 11 billion people in 2080, then slowly decline

143. On October 9, 1972, Dr. Jeff Hamilton (Warwick University – England) was teaching a class on probability, He flipped an coin and it landed on its edge in front of 40 witnesses – odds are about a billion to one against

144. It is possible to make a map of the world where no country borders another with the same color with just four colors

145. A mathematical rule called “The Law of Inconvenience” proved that there should be 2.3 women’s toilets for every one installed for men in public areas

146. Until 1900, the Kirghiz people of Central Asia used horses as their main currency, with sheep as a smaller unit of purchase

147. Your odds of buying a winning a lottery ticket: 14 million to 1

Your odds of being hit by a bus in an urban area while going to purchase a lottery ticket: 3 million to 1

148. The first snowboarding or “snurfing” competition was February 18, 1968 in Michigan

149. Teeth transplants were fairly common in the Victorian era but they had a high rate of infection and they usually failed

150. Statistically, any amputation of a limb will shorten your life expectancy by about five years

153. Mexican President Santa Anna did not bother to attend his own inauguration

154. Before gallows were invented, criminals were hung from the tops of ladders

155. WWII GI’s called canned milk an “armored cow”

156. Pope John VIII survived being poisoned, only to be killed by a man with a hammer. Pope John XXI was killed in is sleep when a piece of the ceiling fell on him

157. The rhyme, “Baa Baa Black Sheep” is actually a complaint about high export taxes on wool during the Middle Ages

158. Charlemagne’s mother, Queen Bertrada was known as “Goosefoot” because of her pigeon-toed walk

159. “Not worth a groat (a 4 penny coin)” is the 18th century term for somebody lazy and worthless

160. One of the most successful pirates in terms of wealth and longevity was a Chinese woman named Cheng I Sao. She united most pirate gangs under her leadership in the early 1800’s

161. Umbrellas were used only for shading purposes until the 1750’s

162. Stetson cowboy hats were originally made in Philadelphia

163. Ancient Egyptians waxed off body hair with a mixture of turpentine and honey

164. At the Battle of Plum Creek (Texas, 1840), retreating Comanche Indians killed most of their hostages except Julie Watts. Her corset stopped multiple arrows fired at her from just a few feet

165. “I think there is a world market for maybe five computers” -Thomas Watson, Chairman of IBM, 1943

166. Greeks thought that horseshoes were lucky because there shape resembled a new moon, a sign of fertility

167. ExLax was originally marketed under the name “Bo-Bo”

168. According to legend, to prove that his word was law, Vlad the Impaler had a golden cup placed in the center of his capital of Tirgoviste, “for thirsty travelers” –he would kill whoever took it – it remained in it’s place for six years

169. Maria Reynolds had affairs with both Alexander Hamilton (helped draft the Constitution) and Aaron Burr (the guy who killed Hamilton in a duel)

170. 16th century European women removed freckles with a combination borax and sulfur. It burns off the top layer of skin

171. Before he returned to Italy, Garibaldi lived briefly on Staten Island, working as a candle maker

172. The last country in the western hemisphere to abolish slavery was Cuba

173. The first child born on the Mayflower was named Oceanus Hopkins

174. During WWII, Vienna-based international police group Interpol was part of the Gestapo

218. An old wives’ tale stated that wearing high heels during pregnancy will cause your child to be born cross-eyed

219. The king did not sign the Magna Carta. There is some doubt whether King John could even write. It was official because his wax seal was affixed

220. According to Wyatt Earp’s biography, gunslingers often carried two guns but they always shot with one hand

221. The word democracy does not appear in either the Declaration of Independence or the Constitution

222. Connecticut and Rhode Island were the only states not to ratify the Eighteen Amendment (Prohibition Amendment)

223. Hemlock, the poison that killed Socrates, is in the carrot family

224. Bears do not truly hibernate. Their heart rate, breathing and temperature are not low enough to meet the criterion.

225. Turning a stove up to boil things in an open receptacle faster does not actually lower cooking time when the water is over 212F degrees

226. Generally, the longer a language has been in use, the simpler its grammer. Example – Modern English is much simpler grammatically than Old English

227. Icing on an aircraft wing bring the plane down because it alters the shape of the airfoil and decreases lift

228. After officially changing the name of Constantinople to Istanbul in 1923, Turkey refused to deliver mail with the city’s older name on it

229. Joan of Arc was born outside of France in the city of Domremy, in what was the independent Duchy of Lorraine. She also wasn’t particularly poor – her father was the richest person in that town and co-rented a chateau

230. Technically, you can only be someone’s “heir” after they die. Before that you are their “devisee”

231. “Liquor”, used to mean any liquid. “Meat” meant any type of food.

3. Nothing in U.S. law forbids a person from mutilating or destroying coins, but it is illegal to try to use them again as currency

232. The only salmon species to die after spawning is the United States Pacific Coast Salmon

233. Sap does not rise or fall in a tree – it moves from the center of the tree to the surface then back

3. Besides water, he only other natural substance that is less dense as a solid than a liquid is bismuth

234. A “nightmare” originally referred to a mara (ghost, specter) who perched on a sleeper’s chest and deprived him/her of motion and speech

235. The Panama Canal is not straight. At one point, on Gatun Lake, it runs due south

236. Smoke form burning poison ivy can be just as itchy to the skin as direct contact with the plant

237. A possum’s tail can not support its own weight

238. The only manuscript of any length in Old English to survive to the present day is one copy of Beowulf (7th-9th century), and it has charred edges from a house fire in 1722

239. The first car to be sold with an engine in the front was an 1895 Panhard-Levassor

240. The Lusitania was armed with six-inch guns that were capable of sinking a submarine

241. It will not help you lose weight to substitute margarine for butter They have the same caloric content

242. Coca-Cola’s original advertising slogan was “Sold at all founts and carbonated in bottles, 5 cents.”

243. The “miniature” of miniature portraits has nothing to do with the size of the painting. It comes from the Latin miniatus, which means to color with red lead

244. French composer Jean Baptiste Lully (1632-1687), was conducting an orchestra so vigorously that he stabbed his toe with the baton. It later became infected and killed him

245. It takes less energy to fill a tank with liquid by forcing it up through the bottom than it does to fill it from the top

246. Sitting Bull did not actually fight at the Battle of Little Bighorn. Crazy Horse took care of Custer

247. Canadian troops surrendered Hong Kong to the Japanese on December 25, 1941

248. In 1837, Boston banned bathing except for specific medical necessity. In 1871, Tucson, Arizona had 3,000 people and one bathtub

249. Greek philosopher Empedocles (490-430 BC), was the man who came up with the idea that everything was made of earth, fire, water and air

250. Archduke Franz Ferdinand’s wife’s full name was Sophia von Chotkowa und Wognin, duchess of Hohenberg. He married her for love and this caused a big scandal in his family

251. In 1947, Gerty Radnitz Cori was the first American woman to win a Nobel Prize for Medicine

252. Famous French chef Escoffier, once promoted kitchen helper Ho Chih Minh to a pastry chef

253. The winged hat worn by the Greek god Hermes is called a “pelasos”

254. Cree Indians used smoking pipes as currency

255. Alexander the Great conquered his empire in 13 years

256. There is no record of Patrick Henry actually saying, “Give me liberty or give me death”

257. At the Berlin Olympics in 1936, Jesse Owens was waved at by Hitler and he waved back after receiving one of his Olympic medals (I looked this one up twice, just to make sure)

258. Early French balloonists seriously considered harnessing a team of vultures to steer hot air balloons

259. A bridal veil in ancient Rome was also used later as a burial shroud

260. Early European jester made balloons out of animal bladders and intestines to entertain

261. Roman Emperor Nero could not have fiddled while Rome burned – they had not been invented yet

262. Thomas Jefferson was the first president to use a handshake instead of a bow on official occasions

263. The test H-bomb dropped on Bikini Atoll had a pin-up photo of actress Rita Hayworth on it

264. In 17th century America, the average woman gave birth to 13 children

265. August Rodin’s famous sculpture, The Thinker, was intended to be part of a great pair of doors

266. The Cathedral of Notre Dame’s gargoyles were added 50 years after the church was complete

267. Donald Duck was Mussolini’s favorite cartoon character

268. During WWII, the U.S. never declared war on two Axis powers, Thailand and Finland

269. Aztecs sacrificed up to 15,000 people a year to their sun god

270. Outlaw Ned Kelly wore a homemade armored suit in his last stand against Australian authorities

271. Julius Ceasar made history by crossing the Rubicon, but today we don’t know where it is

333. In 1994, Edward Doughney patented a latex ladder to enable spiders to climb out of tubs

334. In 1825, railway pioneer George Stephenson assured the public that trains would never exceed 25 mph

335. In the 1600’s. Queen Christina of Sweden had a miniature cannon made to shoot tiny cannonballs at fleas

336. George Washington died with three of his own teeth. His dentures (several sets) were made from elephant tusks, lead, hippo teeth, cow teeth, human teeth and walrus tusk

337. The main tower of the castle of Coucy in France was so large it had a full sized fishpond on the roof

338. President Santa Anna of Mexico (1795-1836) had his leg amputated after a battle wound. He kept it in his house from 1838-42, when he had a ceremonial burial. It was stolen in 1844 during a riot in Mexico City

339. Canned food was invented in 1810 but a modern can opener was not invented until 1870

340. In 2001, a blue-fin tuna was auctioned at a Tokyo seafood market for $227,000 – about $511 per pound

341. Unicorns used to be described by ancient Greeks as having a white body and purple head. Its horn was 5 ft long and had a white base, black middle and red tip

342. In 1999, over 900 Americans took out insurance policies against becoming vampires or werewolves

343. Vatican City and Taiwan are the only countries that are not members of the United
Nations

345. 89% of walruses use their right flipper when eating mollusks

346. It is illegal for tourists to take a photograph of a pygmy in Zambia

347. According to Sclater’s Mammals of South Africa, Hippopotamus steak tastes a lot like pork chops

348. The last thing Elvis Presley ate was four scoops of ice cream and six chocolate chip cookies

349. Since Texas was an independent country, it may fly it’s state flag at the same height as the Stars and Stripes

350. Ireland used to be known as Greater Scotia and Scotland is believed to take its name from the Scotti tribe of Ireland

351. The smallest guitar in the world is made of silicon and is 1/20th the thickness of a human hair

352. A hatband has no functional purpose. It is a relic of ancient Egyptian headbands worn to keep hair in place while traveling

353. Lyndon Johnson is the first president to wear contact lenses

354. The Custer Battlefield monument in Montana boasts the world’s first solar-powered toilet

355. The millipede Illacme has 750 legs

356. Lobsters urinate when startled

357. John Logie Baird invented television on January 27, 1926

358. The hole in the center of a CD is the exact size of a Dutch 10-cent coin, which is no longer in use

359. Another name for a polar bear is thalassarctine – from the Greek arktos – “bear” and thalassa – “sea”

360. 50% of the world’s cork comes from Portugal

361. In 1952, “Mr. Potato Head” was the first toy advertised on television

362. If all the Egyptian pyramids were dismantled, they would provide enough stone to build a wall 10 ft. high and 5 ft. wide from Iraq to Britain

363. Only one quagga (an extinct relative of the zebra) was ever photographed alive. Five pictures were taken of one in 1870

364. The state of Queensland, Australia has 120 species of snake. 20 are “dangerous” and 16 are “likely fatal”

365. The gauge of the tracks on the British railway system is equal to the distance between the wheels of a Roman chariot

366. Discounting wind, the maximum speed of a raindrop is 18 mph

367. In 1988, The New York health department reveled that they had treated 8,064 dog bites, 1,587 bites from other people and one penguin bite

368. Natives of the South Pacific Island of Mangia had never heard of kissing until the 1700’s

369. The country of St. Kitts and Nevis consist of two islands, one shaped like a bat and one like a ball

370. Garlic is strongly attractive to leeches

371. Nearly a quarter of all your bones are in your feet

372. A male ferret is called a “hob” and a female is a “jill”. A group of ferrets is called a “business”

373. In 1998, the city of Bogota, Colombia introduced poetry reading on buses to reduce stress levels

374. Australian Fitzroy River tortoises breathe through their mouth on land and absorb oxygen through the skin on their bottom when underwater

375. The Museum of Burnt Food is located in Arlington, Massachusetts

376. An Alphonsin is a surgical appliance designed to remove a bullet

377. The butterfly stroke in swimming was invented by German Eric Rademacher in 1926

378. The first dogs to return alive from space were Belka (“Squirrel”) and Strelka (“Little Arrow”) in 1960. Strelka later had a pup that the Soviet government gave to President Kennedy

379. “Hello” was coined by Thomas Edison specifically for the phone. Before then it had generally been “hullo”

380. General Manuel Noriega, former president of Panama is prisoner number 38699-079 at the Federal Metropolitan Correctional Facility in Miami

381. On April 20, 1987, Fukashi Kazami of Japan became the first person to reach the North Pole on a motorcycle

382. Paper was invented by a Chinese eunuch named Ts’ai Lun around 105 AD.

383. The world’s first pizzeria was the Antica Pizzeria Port’Alba in Naples, Italy – it opened in 1830 and is still in business today

383. The King of Hearts is the only playing card king without a moustache

384. Popeye the sailor was the first cartoon character to have a statue erected in his honor. It was put up by Crystal City, Texas – “The spinach capital of the world”

385. If a powerful magnet is placed next to bees building a hive, they will construct it in the shape of a cylindrical cone

386. The first episode of South Park was made with paper cutouts – all the rest are computer animation

387. In 1910, Romanian Henri Coanda built a biplane powered by something much like a jet engine. The first true jet did not fly until 1936

388. The first e-mail was sent by computer engineer Ray Tomlinson in 1971. It was a test message that said “QWERTYUIOP”

389. Project Orion was a 1947 U.S. government plan to build enormous spacecraft powered by dropping a series of nuclear bombs out the back and riding the shock waves

390. Winston Churchill suffered from periodic bouts of depression which he referred to as his “black dog”

391. The average human grows two meters of nose hair from each follicle

392. The town of Avon, Colorado used to hold an annual “Bobfest” for people named Bob

393. Buffaloes are so buoyant that their head, hump and tail are always above the water

394. A skunk can shoot its pungent spray a distance of 15 ft.

395. Charles VIII of France died in 1498 after hitting his head on a lintel above a door leading to a tennis court

396. Wayne Kusy of Evanston, Illinois made a 16 ft replica of the luxury liner Lusitania using 193,000 toothpicks

402. On August 28, 1988 the Yantlee Polyclinic in Bangkok, Thailand published a claim that you can get rid of hunger by pressing lettuce seeds into your ears ten times before a meal

403. The Georgian language seems to be unrelated to any other and uses a thirty-eight letter alphabet, called Mxedruli

404. Project Twinkle and Project Grudge were both names of official U.S. government investigations into flying saucers

405. There is a type of flea that can live only on a hedgehog

406. Cats with a type of glaucoma that deposits a thick blue film over their eyes are considered good luck in Thailand and are called “diamond-eye” cats

407. In 2001, Dutch scientists found a way to use wasps to detect drugs and explosives. Their antenna more sensitive than a dogs’ nose

408. The composer Richard Wagner only wore pink underwear

409. The oldest ice core from Antarctica records 740,000 years of the Earth’s climate

410. The Great Slave Lake in northern Canada is named after a tribe that lived along the lake. The neighboring Cree tribe named them “anowak” which means slaves

411. The United States kept the 1,000 year-old royal crown of Hungary in Fort Knox from 1945 until it was returned in 1978

412. Chromium is the 21st most abundant element in the Earth’s crust

413. Woodpeckers have zygodactyl feet – two toes in front and two on the back

414. Most states require cattle branding irons have a face 3/8th’s of an inch wide and be at least four inches in length

415. According to the Book of Enoch in the Apochrypha (rejected books of the Bible), Noah was an albino

416. Roman barbers dressed cuts with spiders’ webs soaked in vinegar

417. The ancient Egyptians called Mars “Har Decher”, the Red One

418. Jacques Andre Cesar Charles launched the first hydrogen-filled balloon from Paris on Aug. 27, 1783. It came down 15 miles away where terrified peasants attacked and destroyed it.

419. The human liver performs over 500 chemical functions

420. The Manicouagan impact crater in Quebec is over 40 miles in diameter and is now a large circular lake

421. In December of 2007, Zimbabwe had an inflation rate of 66,212.3% and the unofficial exchange rate for it’s currency was 7.1 million Zimbabwe dollars for 1 U.S. dollar

422. Because of unique climatic and geologic conditions, stones at the Racetrack Playa in Death Valley, California move on their own across the landscape for quite some distance

423. The Vulcan “live long and prosper” hand gesture is based on a Jewish priestly blessing

424. According to tradition, the Star card in a Tarot deck can have two meanings. If it is upright, it signifies fresh hope and renewal. If it is reversed, it means lack of trust and self-doubt

425. Richard Donner, the director of “The Goonies” has a model of the ship from the movie in his office

426. The 1964 childrens toy, “Creepy Crawler Thingmaker” from Mattel, came with a series of molds, tubes of “plastigoop” and an open faced fryer, which could heat up to 310 degrees

427. Michelangelo produced the stunning blues (ultramarine) in his paintings by grinding up the semi-precious stone lapis lazuli to make the pigment

428. Chaka Khan’s biggest hit, “I Feel For You” was originally written by Prince. In that same song, Stevie Wonder did the harmonica solos, and Melle Mel of Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five did the rap breaks. Hence the lyric: “Chaka Khan…Ch-ch-ch-ch-Chaka Khan.”

429. In nature, a gravitational mass larger than the planet Jupiter is needed to contain a fusion reaction

430. The oldest fossil of a large active predator is Anomalocaris, an arthropod with a circular mouth made up of 32 overlapping plates that resembles a pineapple ring. It is from the Cambrian (505 million years old)

431. The percentage of essential oils (aromatic compounds) mixed in with denatured alcohol will result in different labels on a perfume bottle:

-Perfume has 22%

-Eau de Parfume, has between 15 and 22%

-Eau de Toilette has 8 to 15%

-Eau de Cologne has 4%

432. The head of the Hitler Youth, Baldur von Schirach, had an American grandfather who was an honorary pallbearer at Abraham Lincoln’s funeral

433. The Gingko tree was thought to be extinct but a small number had been cultivated for centuries in Buddhist monasteries in China and eventually seeds were exported in 1192 AD to Japan

434. Bowler hats were originally designed to protect gamekeepers’ heads from low hanging branches while on horseback. They had previously worn top hats that were easily knocked off

435. Thirty-two tornadoes broke out from Oklahoma to Wisconsin during the winter on January 24, 1967

436. Until the 1920’s, all jigsaw puzzles were hand cut from wood – expensive to create, thus only affordable for the upper class

437. Although well known for his addiction to alcohol today, W.C. Fields rarely touch alcohol until he was in his mid-thirties. He began his career in vaudeville as a juggler – he could not afford to drink, as his acts demanded soberness in order to succeed

438. Kentucky Representative William Jordan Graves killed Maine Representative Jonathan Cilley in a pistol duel on February 24, 1838. Congress then passed a law making it illegal to duel in Washington D.C.

439. Vince Carter dunked while leaping over 7’2’’ French center Frederic Weis in the 2000 Summer Olympics. The French media dubbed it “le dunk de la mort” – “the dunk of death”

440. The band AC/DC is popularly known as “Acca Dacca” in their native Australia

441. Bacteria have the ability to take up raw DNA fragments

442. The name marmot comes from the Old French marmontaine, which means “mountain mouse”

443. Knots can lower the strength of ropes by 25-50%

434. Supernovas (or supernovae) occur about once every 50 years in a galaxy the size of the Milky Way

435. Members of the royal Habsburg family were traditionally buried with their hearts in a separate silver box

436. There are more manufacturing jobs in Los Angeles County than the entire state of Michigan

437. The individual metal fan blades in a high-pressure gas turbine jet engine are cast and cooled in such a way that they form a single crystal – this allows them to withstand a 250-degree increase in temperature from normal metal blades without melting

438. Benjamin Franklin had the habit of rising early each day and sitting naked for half an hour either reading or writing

439. The dance known as the foxtrot was invented by Harry Fox in 1914

440. The pulse of a healthy elephant is only 25 beats per minute

441. Obscure English measurements-

1 rod/perch = 16.5 ft

1 chain = 22 yds

1 furlong = 40 rods = 220 yds

1 hand = 4 inches

1 mil = 0.001 inch

442. During the Russo-Finnish Winter War of 1940, the Finns placed massive sheets of cellophane over several frozen lakes to make them look like open water from the air. Russian tanks would then avoid driving over the lakes and flank the Finnish positions

443. Seth Macfarlane (Family Guy) was given voice training by a 90-year-old couple that had also trained Frank Sinatra

444. The “Hayflick limit” states that human cells cultured in a lab can only double about 50 times before they stop reproducing and age.

445. Many of the channels of major rivers in Wyoming are older than the mountain ranges they flow through and cut paths through them as the mountains rose

446. The first Japanese baseball team, the Shinbashi Athletics was organized in 1878 by railroad engineer Hiroshi Hiraoka, an ardent Boston Red Sox fan from his days as a student in the United States

447. An adult moose eats between 40 – 60 lbs. of draws moisture from your mouth. This is why it sticks

448. There is only a 5% chance a baby will be born on its “due date” and only a 25% that it will be delivered within four days of its scheduled arrivalfood a day, but does not eat much grass

449. The high protein content of peanut butter

450. A Polish priest, Fr. Casimer Zeglin invented a bulletproof vest and contacted President McKinley to give him one for his safety. McKinley’s personal secretary expressed interest and scheduled an appointment right after the President returned from a trip to Buffalo, N.Y. – where ironically, he was fatally shot

451. Of the ten highest mountains in the world, eight are found in Nepal

452. Many former NFL players have donated their brains to Boston University Medical School. This school is studying the long-term affects of multiple concussions

453. The Grand Prairie Airhogs (a minor league baseball team) once had a stadium giveaway for a free funeral offered to a “lucky” fan

454. The ape in the original movie King Kong (1933) was 18 inches high and covered in rabbit fur

455. If a person suffers from blepharospasms, they wink uncontrollably

456. In Turkey, the turkey is called the “American bird”

457. The left hand of a skilled typist does 56% of the work

458. It is accepted by many historians that the first modern university was founded in Bologna, Italy in the eleventh century

459. Ants don’t sleep

460. The act of piracy is specifically mentioned for punishment in the U.S. Constitution. Article 1, Section 8, Clause 10 states that Congress shall have the power “to define and punish piracies committed on the high seas.”

461. In September of 2008, A Swiss man named Yves Rossy became the first person to fly across the English Channel with a pair of wings and a jet engine strapped to his back

462. Marco Polo was not Italian. He was born Marko Pilic in what is now Porcula, Croatia

463. The only frogs in the world that actually sound like they are saying “ribbit” are the Pacific tree frogs that live around Hollywood. They were recorded in the 1930’s and used as background in movie jungle scenes from around the world

464. The earth technically has seven “moons”. Besides the Moon, there are 6 other “Near Earth” asteroids that follow the Earth around the Sun but are invisible to the naked eye

465. The way that asteroid belts are portrayed in movies is inaccurate. The average distance between asteroids large enough to cause damage to a space ship are about 1.25 million miles apart

466. Some trees such as oak and willows release ozone that can poison nearby vegetation

467. A rhino’s horn is made of keratin and can sometimes unravel if damaged. Asian rhinos do not charge, they bite when showing aggression

468. Charles Lindbergh created the first artificial heart. It is made of glass and now resides in a display case at Rockefeller University

469. Hippos have been observed multiple times dragging a shark out of the ocean and trampling it to death

470. Napoleon’s Chief of Staff, Alexandre Berthier bought thousands of tamed rabbits for a “hunting party” that the Emperor was hosting. When released, all the rabbits immediately ran towards the hunting party (expecting to be fed) scattering the men and humiliating Napoleon

471. Besides, being on a U.S. one dollar bill, E pluribus unum (out of the many, one)is the motto of the Portuguese football club Sport e Lisboa y Benifica

472. The first plastic artificial teeth were made out of celluloid. They tasted like ping-pong balls and tended to melt if you drank hot liquids

473. Yankee is from the 1680’s and comes from the Dutch word Janke, which means “Little John”

474. Samuel Clemens stole the name “Mark Twain” from Captain Isaiah Sellers (1802-1863) who used it as his pen name when he was a reporter for the New Orleans Picayune newspaper

475. Bangkok, Thailand is known to the locals as Grung Tape, which means “City of Angels” (the same as Los Angeles)

476. By volume, the largest single cohesive man-made thing on earth is the Fresh Kills landfill near New York City. It has more volume than the Great Wall of China

477. The coldest place in the Universe was in Helsinki, Finland. In 2003, a team from Helsinki University of Technology cooled a piece of rhodium to a tenth of a billionth of a degree from absolute zero

478. Some average human life spans through the ages:

Neanderthal – 29 years

Cro-Magnon – 32

Copper Age – 36

Bronze Age – 38

Greeks and Romans – 36

5th Century England – 30

14th Century England – 38

17th Century Netherlands – 51

18th Century France – 45

20th Century Japan – 81

479. Fiberglass was patented by John H. Thomas of Newark, Ohio on October 11, 1938. Is was known as glass wool

480. The hydrogen used to fill early dirigibles were manufactured by a slow process using sulfuric acid and iron filings

481. The Republic of Vermont declared its independence in 1777. It officially joined the United States on February 18, 1791

482. Western Union sent singing telegrams to people only by phone after 1950

483. Quincy, Massachusetts was the first school to have separate classrooms for each class (1846)

485. Bootlegger and murderer Isaie Beausoliel was on the FBI’s “Most Wanted” list from 1939 and 1953. To avoid capture, he dressed as a woman in public for 14 years and went by the name Rita Bennett

486. Baseball great Leroy “Satchel” Paige pitched three shutout innings for Kansas City in 1965 at the age of 59 – thus becoming the oldest person to ever play in a major league game

487. The French National Library processes the blood-splattered document that Robespierre (French Revolution) was writing when he was shot. He survived but was guillotined the next day – facing up

488. A human can tolerate a maximum radiation dosage of 1,000 rads. The bacterium Deinococcus radiodurans can survive a whopping 1.5 million rads or 3 million rads when frozen. It is pink and smells like rotten cabbage

489. Snake charmers depend on three things for their act:

Cobras rear straight up when threatened and sway to sight of the musical instrument. They do not react at all to the sound

2. They usually only have to strike the instrument once to know they will be hurt and never do it again

3. Most of the cobras are defanged

490. Despite the name, violin strings were never made of catgut. All violin strings before 1750 were made of sheep’s gut. Modern strings are a combination of gut, steel and nylon

491. In 1944, RAF tailgunner – Flight Sergeant Nicholas Alkemade jumped from his burning bomber and fell from 18,000 feet without a parachute. His fall was broken by a pinetree and then a snowdrift. He broke no bones and only suffered a sprained ankle

492. All chickens in the world are descended from a kind of pheasant called the Red Jungle Fowl (Gallus gallus gallus) found primarily in Thailand

493. Chihuahuas are not native of

Mexico but were probably brought by Spanish merchants from China

494. Atlas was condemned by Zeus to hold up the sky, not the Earth. Early illustrations have him holding a globe, but it is filled with stars

495. During WWI both Germany and Austria ran short on cotton so they made their uniforms largely from the fiber of nettles with a little cotton mixed in

496. The first animals in space were fruit flies loaded on to an American version of a German V2 rocket in 1946

497. All mammals have seven neck vertebrae except manatees and sloths

498. The first man to circumnavigate the globe was a Ferdinand Magellan’s Philippine slave and interpreter Enrique de Malaca known as “Henry the Black”. Despite Magellan freeing Enrique in his will, the second in command Juan Sebastian Elcano refused to honor his wishes. Enrique escaped but Elcano unjustly garnered fame and fortune for being the first man to circle the globe instead of the interpreter

499. Christopher Columbus learned to speak Spanish but with a marked Portuguese accent. He also wrote a diary in Greek

500. Six specially trained sea lions are employed by the U.S. navy off the coast of Iraq for mine detection

501. The man on the Quaker Oats box was painted by Haddon Sundblom in 1957. He was the artist who essentially invented the modern version of Santa Claus for Coca-cola in the 1930’s

502. Adolph Hitler was not a vegetarian because he was against eating meat. He suffered from chronic flatulence – his doctors (rather oddly) recommended a more vegetarian diet to control his gas

503. The longest animal in the world is a bootlace worm (Lineus longissimus) which reaches lengths of almost 200 feet

504. Carrots were first cultivated by humans in Afghanistan in about 3,000 B.C. – they were purple on the outside and yellow on the inside. Orange carrots come from 16th century Holland

505. Coconut husks are used by Daimler-Chrysler to make biodegradable seats for their trucks

506. Boomerangs were originally used by Aborigines to imitate hawks in order to drive game birds into nets strung between trees

507. In Charles Perrault’s original version of Cinderella written in the 17th century, her slippers are made of squirrel fur

508. Bathtub loofahs are not sponges but are the vines of a kind of gourd that are regarded a tasty snack throughout Asia

509. The average pencil can be sharpened 17 times and can draw a straight line 30-35 miles long

510. The log cabin came to America via Swedish and Finnish settlements in Delaware in the 1630’s

511. In northern China an estimated 40 million people currently live in cave homes called yaodong

512. Chameleons don’t change color to match their background. Their color shifts as a result of their different emotional states

513. “Mike the Headless Chicken” lived two years (1945-1947) after the ax he was being killed with missed the bird’s jugular vein and left enough of the brain stem to keep him alive. Mike’s owner was making $4,500 a month on tourists who came to see his chicken

514. When given unlimited access to mice, cats will kill about 15 before stopping

515. The weight of the sun’s light on the Earth’s surface is 2 lbs. per square mile

516. The common midge beats its wings 133,000 times/min

517. Sigmund Freud had morbid fear of ferns

518. An 18th century German named Matthew Birchinger played four musical instruments, including a bagpipe, despite the fact that he had no hands or legs.

519. Koala is Aboriginal for “no drink”

520. Abraham Lincoln’s mother died when the family dairy cow ate poisonous mushrooms and Mrs. Lincoln drank the milk

521. Surrealist artist Salvador Dali once arrived at an art exhibition in a limousine filled with turnips

522. At one point, the Panama Canal was going to be built across Nicaragua

513. Sunbeams that shine through clouds are called crepuscular rays

514. A modern silicon chip has more power than the 1949 computer ENIAC which occupied an entire city block

515. Poison-dart frogs bred in captivity eventually become non-toxic due to diet

516. Children between the ages two and seven color, on average, for twenty-eight minutes a day

517. In 1936, track star Jesse Owens beat a race horse in a 100 yard dash. The horse was given a head start

518. Nearly all sumo wrestlers have flat feet

519. Leonardo da Vinci invented modern scissors

520. The metal part at the end of a pencil is 20% sulfur

521. 30,000 monkeys were used in a massive three-year effort to classify the various types of polio

522. Schools of 12 ft. Pacific Humboldt squid can catch and strip a 600 lb. marlin to the bone within an hour

523. Ancient Romans believed that birds only mated on February 14th.

524. The glue on Israeli postage stamps is certified kosher

525. Bruce Lee was so fast that his films actually had to be slowed down so audiences could see his moves

526. Influenza got its name because people believed that the disease was do to of the evil “influence” of the stars

527. Jimi Hendrix, Janis Joplin and Jim Morrison were all twenty-seven years old when they died

528. The average woman consumes six pounds of lipstick in their lifetime

529. The first man to ever set foot in Antarctica was John Davis on February 7, 1821

530. To keep cool, ostriches urinate on their legs; it then evaporates like sweat

531. Charlie Chaplin once won third place in a Charlie Chaplin look-alike contest.

532. Mario, of Super Mario Bros. Fame, first appeared in the 1981 arcade game Donkey Kong. His original name was Jumpman, but that was changed to Mario to honor Nintendo of America, Inc.’s landlord, Mario Segali

533. The words assassination and bump were invented by Shakespeare

534. In England in the 1880’s, pants was considered a dirty word.

535. The liquid inside young coconuts can be used as a substitute for blood plasma in an emergency.

536. The yo-yo originated in the Philippines, where it was used as a hunting weapon

540. Four hundred McDonald’s Quarter Pounders can be made out of one cow.

541. Kittens have been clocked at thirty-one miles an hour at full speed and can cover three times their body length per leap.

542. In the nineteenth century, the British Navy attempted to dispel the superstition that Friday was an unlucky day to embark on a ship. The keel of a new ship was laid on a Friday; she was named HMS Friday, commanded by Captain Friday. The ship disappeared on her first voyage, never to be heard from again.

543. The English word soup comes from the Medieval word sop, which means a slice of bread over which roast drippings were poured

544. The characters of Bert and Ernie on Sesame Street were named after Bert the cop and Ernie the taxi driver in the movie It’s a Wonderful Life

545. Cranberries are sorted for ripeness by bouncing them; a fully ripened cranberry can be dribbled like a basketball

546. In 1983, a Japanese artist made a copy of the Mona Lisa completely out of toast

548. The old Kentucky Fried Chicken slogan “Finger-lickin’ good” came out as “Eat your fingers off” in Chinese

549. Assuming Rudolph was in front, there are 40,320 ways to rearrange the other reindeer

550. Seabirds have salt-excreting organs above their eyes that enable them to drink seawater; sea snakes have a similar organ at the base of their tongues

551. There are five trillion atoms in one pound of iron

552. George Washington had to borrow money to go to his own inauguration

553 The name of Jabba the Hutt’s pet is Salacious Crumb

554. The expression “getting someone’s goat” is based on the custom of keeping a goat in the stable with a racehorse as the horse’s companion. The goat becomes a settling influence for the Thoroughbred. If you owned a competing horse and were not above some dirty business, you could steal your rival’s goat (it’s been done) to upset the other horse and make it run a poor race

555. In a deck of cards, the nine of hearts represents love and the ace of spades symbolizes death

556. The first U.S. coin to bear the words “United States of America” was a penny made in 1727. It was also inscribed with the phrase, “Mind your own business.”

557. Most toilets flush in E flat

558. Anise (licorice) is the scent on the artificial rabbit that is used in greyhound races

559. Ancient Egyptians shaved off their eyebrows to mourn the death of their cats

560. It takes a plastic container 50,000 years to start decomposing

561. In 1976, a Los Angeles secretary named Jannene Swift officially married a fifty-pound rock. The ceremony was witnessed by more than twenty people

562. The YKK on the zipper of Levi’s stands for Yoshida Kogyo Kabushibibaisha, the world’s largest zipper manufacturer

563. In certain parts of ancient India and China, mouse meat was considered a delicacy

564. Since the 1930’s, the town of Corona, California has lost all seventeen of the time capsules they originally buried

565. Before 1859, baseball umpires used to sit in rocking chairs behind home plate

566. Between 1902 and 1907, the same tiger killed 436 people in India

567. To survive, most birds must eat at least half their own weight in food each day

568. Pilgrims ate popcorn at the first Thanksgiving dinner

569. Pope Adrian VI died after a fly got stuck in his throat as he was drinking from a water fountain

570. Porcupines are excellent swimmers because their quills are hollow

571. At room temperature, the average air molecule travels at the speed of a rifle bullet

572. According to custom, a Saudi Arabian woman can get a divorce if her husband doesn’t give her coffee

573. A sheep, a duck and a rooster were the first passengers in a hot air balloon

574. The only purple animal is a South African Blesbock

575. In the late nineteenth century and the earlier years of the twentieth century, when gramophones or phonographs amplified the sound through large horns, woolen socks were often stuffed in them to cut down the noise; hence the phrase “put a sock in it”

576. Astronauts in orbit around the Earth can see the wakes of ships

577. Moisture, not air, causes superglue to dry

578. It is estimated that Americans consume ten million tons of turkey on Thanksgiving Day. Due to turkey’s high sulfur content, Americans also produce enough gas to fly a fleet of 75 Hindenburgs from Los Angeles to New York in 24 hours.

579. In Turkey, the color of mourning is violet. In most Muslim countries and in China, it is white

580. The national anthem of Greece has 158 verses

581. Pirates thought that having an earring would improve their sight

582. The original name for a butterfly was the flutterby

583. You are more likely to lose your hearing than any of the other senses if hit by lightning

584. Due to precipitation, for a few weeks each year K2 is taller than Mt. Everest

585. The sixteenth-century astronomer Tycho Brahe lost his nose in a duel with one of his students over a mathematical computation. He wore a silver replacement nose for the rest of his life.

586. If you could scale-up spider silk strand to the thickness of a pencil – it could stop a Boeing 747 in flight

587. Statistically, the safest age is ten years old

588. The garfish has green bones

589. Woodpecker scalps, porpoise teeth and giraffe tails have all been used as money

590. One hundred and sixty cars can drive side by side on the Monumental Axis in Brazil, the world’s widest road

591. Plah-Doh was originally formulated as a compound to clean wallpaper

592. The number of cricket chirps you count in a fifteen-second interval, plus thirty seven, will tell you the current air temperature

593. Sunglasses date back to fifteenth-century China, where they were worn by judges to conceal their expressions while presiding over court

594. In most TV commercials and print advertisements, the hands on a watch/clock are set at 10:10

595. Cats have two sets of vocal chords

596. A recording of a camel’s moan was slowed down and used as the sound of a tornado in the movie Twister

597. The $ sign is a combination of the letters P and S, PS being the abbreviation for pesos, the principal coin in circulation in the U.S. until 1794, when we began making our own dollars

598. Wedding cake was originally thrown at the bride and groom, instead of eaten by them

599. There are approximately 1,750 O’s in every can of SpaghettiO’s

600. The man who commissioned the Mona Lisa hated it and refused to take the painting

601. Banks are commonly shaped like pigs because in the eighteenth century frugal people saved their money in earthenware jars made of dense orange clay known as pygg

602. If Jell-O is hooked up to an EEG, it registers movements virtually identical to the brain waves of a healthy adult

603. The smell of Crayola crayons has been proven to lower a person’s blood pressure

604. Juneau, Alaska is the largest city in the U.S. that cannot be reached by road

605. Tip is an acronym for “to insure promptness” and used to be given in advance for good service

606. There are estimated to be 3,000 quintillion individual living things on this planet. Of these, 75% are bacteria and 0.000000,000,000,000,000,00013% are human beings.

607. In 1971, it rained in Chile’s Atacama Desert for the first time since the 16th century

608. With enough training, an elephant can throw a baseball faster than a human

609. Goodyear once made a tire entirely made of corn

610. Kiwis are the only bird that hunts by smell

611. The children’s game Simon Says was originally called Do This, Do That

612. Mozart wrote the melody for “Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star” when he was five years old

613. Queen Elizabeth II was Time magazines “Man of the Year” in 1952

614. Red blood cells live for 4 months and make 75,000 trips to the lungs and back

615. Plants, like people, run fevers when they are sick

616. The Incas measured time by how long it took a potato to cook

617. Elvis had a pet monkey named Scatter

618. In 1977, New York hunters killed 83,204 deer and 7 fellow hunters

619. Broccoli was first introduced to the U.S. in the 1920’s

620. Early cowboy movie star Tom Mix had tires made with his initials imprinted on them so that he would leave a trail of “TM’s” along dirt roads

621. In 1916 Cumberland College’s football team lost to Georgia Tech 220-0

622. Columbus traveled at an average speed of 2.8 mph on his first voyage across the Atlantic

623. A giraffe can clean its ears with its tongue

624. A silver-spotted skipper caterpillar can propel its own feces five feet from its body

625. There is a replica of Bedrock, the town where the Flintstones lived, in Vail, Arizona

626. The scientific term for something that is football-shaped is a “prolate sheroid”

627. The Liberty Bell was made in England

628. Anne Boleyn, second wife of Henry VIII, had six fingers on her left hand

629. Most wild birds only live 10% of their potential lifespan

630. A full human bladder is about the size of a softball

631. Mosquitos are attracted to the color blue

632. A 15 year-old was once charged with armed robbery after pointing his pet boa constrictor at a man and ordering him to hand over all of his cash

633. In some cases, ransom paid for a kidnap victim is tax-deductible

634. There is a species of butterfly in Brazil that has the color and fragrance of chocolate

635. The 1900 Olympic Games included croquet, fishing, billiards and checkers

636. The kilt originated in France

637. El Paso, Texas (pop. 612,000) is the largest U.S. city without a major league sports team

638. In a 1936 ping pong tournament, the players volleyed for over two hours on the opening serve

639. The average bank cashier loses $310 a year

640. A sygzygy occurs when three astronomical bodies line up

641. Herons have been observed “fishing” by dropping insects on the water then catching the fish that surface for the bait.

642. During the Cambrian Period, about 500 million years ago, a day was only 20.6 hours long

643. Pepsi is commonly used by wooden boat owners to clean mold from decks. It needs to be rinsed within thirty seconds or it begins to eat into the wood

644. The Old English word for sneeze is fneosam

645. Michael Jackson owned the rights to the South Carolina state anthem

646. A hailstone containing a carp fell in Essen, Germany

647. The record for the most snowfall in one day was set on February 7, 1916, in Alaska when seventy-eight inches fell

648. In 1987, a 1,400-year-old lump of still edible cheese was unearthed in Ireland

649. The first commercial vacuum cleaner was so large it was horse-drawn. People threw parties in their homes so guests could watch the device work

650. One Roman “cure” for stomachache was to wash their feet and then drink the water

651. The farthest point from any ocean is in China

652. If you drove a car from Earth at a constant speed of 100 mph, it would take about 221,000 million years reach the center of the Milky Way – which is a comparatively small galaxy

653. The first item ever sold on eBay was a broken laser printer, sold for $14 by the site’s creator

654. If one were to capture and bottle a comet’s 10,000-mile vapor trail, the amount of vapor actually present in the bottle would take up less than one cubic inch of space

655. The first land speed record in auto racing was set in 1903 by Alexander Winton – his speed was 68.18 mph

656. The largest living organism is a honey mushroom. It covers 3.4 square miles of land in eastern Oregon

670. The roaring lion in the MGM logo was named Volney and lived at the Memphis Zoo

671. The moon is one million times drier than the Gobi Desert

672. Liquid water was found inside a 4.5-year-old meteorite in 1999.

673. There is about 200 times more gold in the world’s oceans than has ever been mined in our entire history

674. The tallest woman ever recorded, Trijntje Cornelisdochter, was born in 1616 in Holland. She was 8 feet, 4 inches tall when she died aged 7 in 1633.

675. During the winter months, Romans drank hot wine

676. The Tokyo World Lanes Bowling Center is currently the largest bowling establishment, with 252 lanes

678. Marilyn Monroe’s ex-husband, baseball legend Joe DiMaggio, had fresh roses put by her crypt three days a week for twenty years after her death

679. Your right lung takes in more air than your left lung

680. A Bedouin Arab wedding dish is roast camel, stuffed with a sheep, which is stuffed with chickens, which are stuffed with fish, which are stuffed with eggs

681. The smallest visible sunspots are about fifty times the size of Africa

682. On average, a cow experiences flatulence 16 times a day and produces 65 lbs. of manure

683. Mt. Everest used to be named “Peak 15”

684. A cat is 30% more likely to survive falling from the 16th floor than the 7th floor of a building. It takes about eight floors for the cat to realize what is happening and correct its body to land correctly

685. A typical galaxy of one hundred billion stars produces less energy than a single quasar

686. The largest wave ever recorded was near the Japanese island of Ishigaki in 1971 – It was 279 feet high

687. The first diabetic to be injected with insulin was a 14-year-old boy named Leonard Thompson from Toronto, Canada in 1922

688. A magic potion or charm meant to make a specific person love you is known as a “philter”

689. The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse are Conquest, Slaughter, Famine and Death

690. A mile on land is 5,280 feet. A nautical mile is 6,080 feet

691. 1,274,953,680 uses all the digits from 0 through 9 and can be divided exactly by any number from 1 to 16

692. The first woman to run for President was Victoria Woodhall in 1872 – 48 years before women were granted the right to vote

693. The longest recorded lifespan of a slug is eighteen months

694. Cats in Halifax, Nova Scotia are much more likely to have six toes than any other place in Canada

695. Without an atmosphere, the surface temperature on the equator of the earth would be 176 F by day and -220 F at night

696. Raindrops are not shaped like tears, they are rounded on the top and flat at the bottom

697. The billionth decimal digit of the numerical value of pi is nine

698. Charles Dickens named the character Tiny Tim from the story A Christmas Carol only after trying the names Puny Pete, Little Larry and Small Sam

699. The word robot comes from the Czech word robotovat which means “to work very hard”

700. The largest cabbage ever grown weighed 144 pounds

701. Famed 17th century mathematician and scientist Blaise Pascal invented both the roulette wheel and built (when he was 18) a mechanical computing device called a Pascaline

702. The modern zipper was invented in 1913 but didn’t really catch on until the 1930’s

703. Edgar Allen Poe married his 13-year-old cousin

704. The first VCR was made in 1956 and was the size of a piano

705. Tobacconists used to put carrots in their tobacco bins to keep their product from drying out

706. Owls are the only birds that can see the color blue

707. President James Madison was 5’4’’ tall and weighed 98 pounds

708. A lump of cheese can be chopped into a maximum if 93 pieces with eight straight cuts

709. “Long in the tooth”, meaning “old” comes from aging horses. As they get older, their gums recede thus their teeth appear to grow.

710. The little lump of flesh just forward of your ear canal is called a tragus

711. There are 450 hairs in the average human eyebrow

712. Tic Tacs contain carnuba wax – the same ingredient found in many car waxes

713. Armadillos can be housebroken

714. The sloth can starve to death if the Sun’s heat does not raise the temperature of the digestive bacteria in its stomach. They are unable to digest food in the dark or cold weather

715. No new animals have been domesticated in the last 3,000 years

716. In the early episodes of Star Trek, Dr. McCoy’s medical scanner was an ordinary salt shaker

717. All the characters in the Flintstones have four fingers and three toes

718. Australia is the only continent without an active volcano

719. On November 29, 2000, Pope John Paul II was made an honorary Harlem Globetrotter

720. You burn more calories sleeping than watching TV

721. One human hair can support more than 6 ½ pounds

722. The actor Richard Gere’s middle name is Tiffany

723. The sirloin was introduced when King

James I knighted a joint of beef (a loin), which was particularly tasty

724. Baby robins eat fourteen feet of earthworms a day

725. Every night the parrot fish sleeps inside of a mucus cocoon, which it constructs daily to block its body smell from predators

726. Whisker patterns on a lions’ muzzle are a distinctive as fingerprints are for a human

727. Gentlemen in the 18th century used cork pads called “plumpers”, to fill out hollows in their cheeks left by the loss of rotten teeth

728. It would take seven billion particles of fog to fill a teaspoon

729. An infinity sign is called a lemniscate

730. Pearls melt in vinegar

731. “The world is more like it is now than it ever was before” – Quote from President Dwight D. Eisenhower in 1953

732. Edgar Allen Poe was expelled from West Point Military Academy after showing up to a public parade wearing only his white belt and gloves

733. The highest-scoring three-letter word in Scrabble is zax, a tool for cutting and trimming roof slates

735. President Lyndon Johnson had a soda fountain installed in the Oval Office that dispensed Fresca. He could remotely operate the fountain from a button on his desk chair

736. More people play the bagpipes today than at any other time in history

737. Harry Houdini actually trained his pet dog to escape from a miniature set of handcuffs

738. The Nullarbor Plain in southwest Australia gets its name from the Latin nullus arbor – “no tree”

739. Butter was the first product allowed by law to have artificial coloring. It is naturally white

740. Ingrown toenails are hereditary

741. Jumping spiders have been found alive on mountains as high as 22,000 feet

742. Dogs like squeeze-toys because they sound like animals in distress

743. The Dominican Republic, Egypt, Mexico, Kiribati, Zambia and Fiji all have birds on their flags

744. St. Paul, Minnesota, was originally called “Pig’s Eye” after a man who ran a saloon there

745. Bowling was originally known in Dark age Germany as Heidenwerfen, which means“strike down the heathens”

746. In Japan, Christmas Eve is the time to eat strawberry shortcake and fried chicken

747. You cannot taste food unless it is mixed with saliva. This is true for all foods

748. According to British government statistics, 40% of all Scottish women have legs that are different lengths

749. Banging your head against the wall burns 150 calories per hour

750. Humans and black lemurs are the only primates that can have blue eyes

751. In a single night a mole can tunnel 220 feet

752. For over forty years, Herbert Hoover gave all of his political earnings to charity, including his wages and pension as President

753. Most elephants weigh less than the tongue of a blue whale

754. There are at least 100,000 chemical reactions going on in a human brain every second

755. Theodore Roosevelt shot 296 animals the year after his presidency

756. The U.S. Marine Corps first recruiting station was in a bar

757. 16th century Europeans blamed potatoes for leprosy, syphilis and a shortened life span.

758. The heaviest man recorded was Brower Minnoch of Bainbridge, Oregon. He weighed more than 1,400 lbs

759. The Mayflower usually transported alcohol between England and Spain

760. The number 172 can be found on the back of a five-dollar bill in the bushes at the base of the Lincoln Memorial

761. The world’s largest alphabet is Cambodian, with 74 letters

762. If the eggs spawned by all the female cod in one season survived, they would fill the oceans from seabed to surface. Usually only 5 in 5,000,000,000 survive

763. The average human produces 50,000 pints of spit in their lifetime

764. Porcupines are one of only a few animals (including humans) to kiss one another on the lips

765. A tiger’s paw prints are called pug marks

766. In 1872 locals in North Yorkshire, England recorded that a swarm of ladybugs took three days to pass

767. Child actress Shirley Temple always had 56 curls in her hair

768. The first woman to go over Niagara Falls in a barrel was Annie Taylor in 1901. She was 64 years old at the time

769. 1 divided by 37 equals 0.027027027

1 divided by 27 equals 0.037037037

770. Less than 1% of all Caribbean islands are inhabited

771. Lee Harvey Oswald (Pres. Kennedy’s assassin) was dyslexic

772. Wrigley gum originally was only available if you bought baking powder from William Wrigley – he threw in the pack for free

773. When you hit a tennis ball it spends only 4/1000 of a second in contact with the racquet

774. King Louis XIV of France owned 413 beds

775. Singapore is the only country with exactly one train station

776. U.S. Air Force Captain Joseph W. Kittenger Jr. survived a parachute jump from 102,800 ft. in 1960 – he is only human to ever exceed the speed of sound without using a machine of any kind

777. A bird has to fly at a minimum speed of 11 mph to stay aloft

778. Franklin and Eleanor Roosevelt both slept with pistols under their pillows

779. In 1946, Ismaili Muslim leader Aga Khan was given his weight in diamonds by his followers. He weighed 243 lbs

780. There was room for 150 knights at King Arthur’s Round Table

781. Cat urine glows in black light

782. For every kilogram carried on a space flight, 530 grams of extra fuel are needed at liftoff